Stereoscopic display technologies have been rapidly developed and recognized by more and more users. The most common types of stereoscopic displays are glasses-based stereoscopic display and naked-eye stereoscopic display. The glasses type stereoscopic display is generally used in movie theaters or on home television equipment, while the naked-eye type stereoscopic display is generally used in laptops, tablet PCs, mobile phones and other mobile devices.
Many contents displayed on stereoscopic display devices for individual consumers generally contain two sets of images having certain parallax, so-called stereoscopic images. Two images forming a stereoscopic image are referred as the left image and the right image, respectively.
For example, FIGS. 1A and 1B show the left image and the right image of a stereoscopic image. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, there are three objects in each image, the first object 101/104 (101 for the object in the left image, and 104 for the same object in the right image), the second object 102/105, and the third object 103/106. These three objects each may have a different parallax. For example, the first object has a positive parallax, and appears closer to the viewer and projecting out of the display screen. The second object 102 may have a zero parallax and is rendered on the display screen. The third object may have a negative parallax, which appears farther to the viewer and recessed from the display screen.
Because the left image (L) and the right image (R) of the stereoscopic image can be placed out of order, the parallax between them may change sign accordingly. By comparing all pixels of the left image and the right image, the parallax of each pixel can be obtained, including a maximum value of the positive parallax, called the maximum positive parallax, and a minimum value of the negative parallax, called the minimum negative parallax. The range set by the maximum positive parallax and the minimum negative parallax defines the parallax range of the stereoscopic image.
For a stereoscopic display device, after the hardware design of the device is fixed, the parallax characteristics of the stereoscopic display device may also be fixed. Such parallax characteristics includes a supported parallax range (i.e., the stereoscopic display device supports a range limited by the supported maximum positive parallax and the supported minimum negative parallax). The supported maximum positive parallax and minimum negative parallax refer to allowable maximum positive parallax and minimum negative parallax between image pixels when the stereoscopic display device displays the stereoscopic image normally. The parallax range supported by a stereoscopic display device reflects the parallax performance capability of the stereoscopic display device.
Currently, the parallax information may be fixed after the stereoscopic images are generated. However, the relationship between the parallax range of the stereoscopic images and the parallax range supported by the stereoscopic display device may be unmatched and may affect the 3D display effects and viewer's 3D viewing experience. The disclosed methods and systems are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.